Stitch my Heart
by CheyanneSaysHii
Summary: One day, Jean coms backs from training and makes a surprising discovery about Marco. This will be a two-part story. Don't read part two if you haven't watched up to episode 13 unless you want to be spoilerred. Jean/Marco.
1. Chapter 1

**_Hi guys! Long time no see. I realize that this isn't my usual hetalia fic, but recently I found myself in a ton of new fandoms and lots of story ideas. There's no spoilers in this fic, but chapter 2 (the conclusion) will be different, you have been warned. Oh, and the update to my ongoing high school AU, An Awesome Junior Year, is on the way~!_**

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It'd been a long day of training when Jean finally walked back into his dorm room. He hadn't expected anyone else to be in yet, considering he had taken the fastest shower possible. That said, he was surprised to find Marco sitting up in bed, smiling rather awkwardly and with his hands behind his back.

"H-hi, Jean," Marco stammered. "I didn't expect you to be back so soon." A light blush spread across his cheeks.

"I took a fast shower, I wanted to go to bed early," Jean replied drying his hair with a towel. "I didn't expect anyone to be here. I forgot you're out of training for a few weeks since you got hurt."

"Ah, yeah. Stupid landing gear malfunction made me dislocate my shoulder." Marco rubbed the back of his neck nervously.

"You must be bored when we go do combat training. You can only study the technical stuff for so long," Jean remarked.

"Actually, I haven't been bored at all!" Marco responded cheerfully and then instantly regretted saying it.

"Really? What have you been doing?"

"Uh, well see- I've, um..." Marco stammered out nervously.

"Marco?"'

"You have to promise not to laugh if I tell you," Marco demanded sheepishly.

"Of course I won't laugh. Especially not if it means this much to you," replied Jean.

"Ok, well, a few days ago, I was wandering down the hallways while you guys were out in the forest. I ran into one of the trainers and he seemed really upset that I wasn't training. Well I explained that I was hurt and he just seemed confused about it all, so he looked at me and told me to "make myself useful". I wasn't entirely sure how to do that, so I asked and he told me to go find the uniform people and ask them how I could help. It was easy to find them, and they were all really nice, and one lady told me I could help patch up the uniforms that got torn. So she taught me how to sew and it's actually really fun and yeah..." Marco said the whole thing in one breath before glancing bashfully at Jean.

Jean stared bewildered at Marco, trying to take in everything he'd just said. When Marco saw Jean's hesitance, he pulled out the jacket he had been patching up.

"See? I hid it when you came in because I didn't want anyone to know. Normally no one gets back so early," Marco explained.

"How do you do it? Sew I mean," Jean inquired.

"It's really easy! Sit here and I'll show you," Marco beamed patting the bed next to him.

Jean sat down with his towel around his neck and watched as Marco pulled out his needle and thread.

"See how the fabric has come undone here?" he asked Jean, pointing at a tear on the sleeve. Jean nodded. "I'm going to reconnect the two sides."

Marco pulled a length of thread off the spool before cutting it with a tiny pair of scissors. He threaded the needle, pulling both sides of the string to equal heights. He did a strange rolling motion with his fingers that tied the two pieces of string into a knot before speaking again.

"Now that the needle and string are ready I can fix the jacket," he explained.

Jean watched as Marco began to stick the needle from one side of the jacket to the other, slowly closing the gash in the fabric. He handled the thread delicately, and made small evenly-spaced stitches. In less than five minutes he was done.

"Ta-da," he announced, holding up the jacket for Jean to inspect.

"Won't the string come undone?" Jean asked.

"Nope. See how I tucked the string into itself to make a knot here and here? That'll keep everything in place," Marco answered.

"Neat trick. That'll come in handy if anyone ever needs stitches."

"Yeah, it would. I was thinking about trying to make something, actually."

"Make something? Like a shirt?" Jean inquired.

"Yeah, something like that," Marco replied.

"That reminds me of when I was younger. My mom made me a teddy bear. It was so soft and cuddly, I wish I still had it."

"I had a stuffed cow," Marco reminisced.

Jean shot him a bewildered look, and when Marco realized how silly that sounded, they both busted up laughing.

"I think I'm going to go to bed now," Jean said once he'd stopped laughing. "Training was exhausting today."

"I'll probably head to bed before too long myself. Oh! one last thing," Marco insisted as Jean started to head to his bed.

Jean paused and turned back to look at Marco.

"Thanks for not laughing," Marco finished.

"I'd never laugh at you," Jean replied genuinely. "You're my best friend."

Jean leaned down and gave the now-lightly blushing Marco a hug-he made sure to be gentle so he wouldn't hurt his shoulder-before getting up and going to his bed.

"Goodnight, Marco," Jean called from a few feet away.

"Goodnight, Jean," Marco answered.

By the time the other trainees came back from the showers, they were thankfully too tired to make much noise and wake up the sleeping Jean and Marco. If any of the other trainees had bothered to check, however, they would've found both boys were sleeping with smiles on their faces.


	2. Chapter 2

_Hello lovelies, as promised, here is the second and final part of Stitch My Heart. Again don't read this if you haven't watched episode 13 of Attack on Titan. Enjoy~ :D _

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Jean trudged silently and slowly to his bed, grief weighing down his heart. It had been a victory-the first time land had _ever_ been reclaimed from titans-but no one was celebrating. Hundreds had died in the attack and many more had been wounded. The bodies lay scattered on the streets, though there was a lot less now that two days of clean-up had been going on.

Jean sat down heavily on the edge of his bed, burying his face in his hands. He had held back his tears earlier, but now that he was alone it was getting harder and harder to stop them from spilling out. In his mind, Jean kept revisiting the scene from earlier. Wandering down the streets of Trost helping to identify bodies and clean up debris, when he saw the most painful thing yet-Marco. His body bitten on the right side and slumped in the streets. Goddamn the titans! Marco was his best friend-his confident-and now he was gone forever.

Flopping his head onto his pillow, Jean suddenly felt a small lump. He sat up and dug around under the pillow until his hand brushed something soft and fluffy. He grabbed it and pulled it out, gasping when he realized what it was. Jean turned over the little brown bear in his hands, overcome with memories as he stroked the fur.

**_Flashback_**

"Happy birthday, Jean!" Marco whispered excitedly, shaking him awake.

"Wha-?" Groaned Jean, still half-asleep.

"It's your birthday! Remember?" Marco was speaking quietly to avoid waking the other trainees.

Jean looked up at the smiling face he had grown so used to watching. Despite being fully healed from his shoulder injury, Marco still took the time to sew during downtime, and Jean never missed an opportunity to watch. There was something so intriguing about watching Marco diligently work the thread through the fabric, using his long fingers so gently and nimbly with the needle to stitch things together. Jean had had a crush on Marco for a while-even before they began training together- but watching him do something so passionately had made Jean fall even harder. Not that he had told anyone, of course!

"Birth...day?"

"I got you a present," Marco admitted. A light blush appeared on his face as he brought his hand from behind his back. "I remebered you telling me about the teddy bear you had as a kid, so I made you one. I'm sorry it's small, I couldn't find much spare fabric or stuffing."

Jean took the little bear into his hands, too overwhelmed for words. He slowly looked up at Marco, his eyes wide with emotion, and without speaking threw his arms around the brunette and pulled him on top of him in a hug.

"Thank you," whispered Jean into Marco's shoulder.

"You're very welcome," Marco mumbled into the pillow.

Jean relaxed his grip on Marco who pushed himself up onto his arms and shifted to sit on the edge of the bed.  
Marco hadn't moved his arms, though. They were still firmly planted, one on each side of Jean's head. Jean looked up at Marco with apprehension in his eyes; Marco looked down at Jean conflicted as to what he should do next.

Then, Marco slowly leaned back down, gently closing his eyes. Jean was confused at first, not quite sure what was going on, but then Marco lightly pressed his lips onto Jean's. Jean closed his eyes, and was about to lean into the kiss when Marco pulled away gently, his eyes still half-closed. The two looked at each other, blushes on their faces and mouths gently parted until Marco straightened up.

"Time for me to go help the uniform ladies," he announced in a whisper. He got up and headed towards the door. "Happy birthday again, Jean."

Jean watched as the door closed and Marco left the room. He touched his lips with his fingers, not quite sure what to think, the ghost of the kiss still lingering. Now how was he going to show Marco how he _really_ felt?

_**End flashback**_

By now, Jean had given up trying to hold back tears. He angrily wiped at them with the back of the hand that wasn't holding Marco's present. Goddamn it! Why hadn't he ever told Marco how he felt? Marco had died not knowing that Jean wanted to be with him forever and Jean couldn't forgive himself for that.

He punched his pillow in anger before grief overwhelmed every other emotion and tears began to run down his cheeks. With eyes blurred, Jean looked down at the bear and pictured Marco diligently sewing the pieces together when no one was watching.

Marco had been an amazing sewer. _But even he couldn't stitch my heart back together now_, Jean thought bitterly.

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_And that's the end. I hope you enjoyed my story. I'm sorry if the last line felt cheesy, but I hope it fits anyways. Thank you for reading ^.^ _


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